Shopping, sewing and sipping our way back in time, influenced by the fabulous vintage style of the 1940s & 50s and our favourite classic cocktails.

Why ‘French 75’?

When we were coming up with ideas for our blog we struggled a bit – we don’t have particularly vintage names and all the good names we liked were already taken by existing bloggers, vintage shops and other businesses.

We knew we wanted to include cocktails in our blog (drinking cocktails is one of our favourite pastimes!), so once we decided to name it after a drink we were sorted – it had to be the fabulous French 75!

Although the French 75 cocktail dates back much earlier than the era we like to style ourselves in, it is an absolute classic and a favourite of both of ours.

There’s an underlying nod to our friendship too… back in 2004 when we first met, Lisa ‘hated’ gin, but Siobhan soon changed that by making her drink gin with bitter lemon instead of tonic – the French 75 has both gin and lemon, topped up with Champagne, and neither of us can resist a bit of sparkle 😉

Fill a shaker with ice cubes, then add the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup – shake well and strain into a chilled champagne flute or coupé glass. Top up with Champagne and garnish with the lemon twist.

(Lisa is now obsessed with gin, even becoming a member of the Craft Gin Club!)